﻿﻿Case Study: CultureBoulder Rural Fire Rescue

ChallengeAs a department responsible for a diverse area (industrial, suburban, agricultural, and mountain forest), Boulder Rural has to maintain, track, and document a lot of specialty equipment. “Figuring out what needs to be done on the trucks can be hard when you’re juggling NFPA guidelines, manufacturer specs, and department SOPs,” says Captain Peter McElvaney. “Everyone needs to be on the same page so nothing gets overlooked.”

﻿Solution﻿After hearing about PSTrax from a local retired chief, Boulder Rural decided to try out the program for its pre-shift apparatus inspections. “Admittedly we didn’t utilize the system at first,” notes McElvaney. “At the time, we were undergoing some personnel changes and higher-than-normal call volumes with the wildfires and floods. So PSTrax kind of fell by the wayside. But they were extremely patient with us and stuck through it all.”

Once things settled down, McElvaney and the rest of the crew got on board with the program. “When we started using PSTrax for our checks, we realized how much it can do. It tells us what needs to be checked, when it needs to be done, and even how to do it. Nothing is getting overlooked.”

﻿Results﻿The crew at Boulder Rural Fire Rescue has established PSTrax as part of their culture and routine. “There’s no more searching for the right logbook - everything we need to know is in front of us on our tablet,” reports McElvaney. “And it’s all documented and stored automatically.”

The time and money savings experienced with their truck checks have prompted the department to add SCBA and Station Checks to the program.

Boulder Rural Fire Rescue is located north of the City of Boulder, Colorado. The combination paid/volunteer department covers light industrial, suburban, agricultural, and mountain areas. It has 2 stations 8 apparatus, and 24 firefighters. ​

"The biggest benefit to me is the communication between shifts. Information gets relayed to everybody. The guys just log in on their phone or tablet and see what happened last shift. If something got taken out of service or if equipment was moved around, everyone knows about it."﻿﻿-Captain Peter McElvaney﻿﻿